The Most Important of All

I hope to be able to do several things this coming year, but none are more important than this: to know Jesus Christ more deeply, to walk more closely with Him, and to learn what it means to abide in Him. My new year's prayer comes from an old hymn that I love:

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

A verse that has stood out to me as I have thought about this is James 4:8 - "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." What an amazing promise! I am so looking forward to this next year. I do not know what it will hold, but I am more confident than ever that no matter what comes, I can trust in His faithfulness!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

Challenge #2 for 2009

I have decided...I think...I'm pretty sure....I hope I can....

I'm going to run a 1/2 marathon in 2009!

13.1 Miles. All at the same time. On the same day.

Yikes! Now it is out there!

(of course this all depends on when the baby joins our family and if my knee holds out...but I'm going to try!!!)

I Love a Challenge!

I am back home after a lovely few days with my family. It seriously felt like I was at the spa or something! It is so wonderful to be able to relax without the pressures or work or feeling like I should be cleaning or doing the checkbook or whatever else....just to sit and drink a cup of tea (or seven!). We arrived home last night, unloaded the car, and went to bed! This morning I awoke to a house that looked like one massive Christmas present explosion. So the cleaning began...

Ah well, the relaxing was good while it lasted!

I wanted to share about a couple of exciting new projects I am starting for the coming year. The first is called Project 365 and I found out about it through my scrapbook magazine. I am going to take one picture a day for the next 365 days (well, I started yesterday and will go through the end of next year) and will be buying the kit that goes with this project. I thought this would be an interesting year to have a picture from every day as it is the year I turn 30, and hopefully the year I become a mom :)

What I love about this project is how easy it is! Basically, you just slip the photos into the pages, write a short journaling thing explaining the picture, and you're done! I am looking forward to being free from the overwhelmed feeling of having to scrap all my pictures, and to having time to get caught up scrapping last year's pictures! It is perfect for me and I am so excited to see how it turns out. (If you are interested you can check out Becky Higgin's blog for more info).

I started yesterday and here are my pictures so far:

Sunday: Family picture - I am so blessed!


Monday: This is what Brad is up to today while I catch up on the essentials of laundry and blogging :) He is putting a new door on the bedroom that we hope to make into the nursery. So glad I vacuumed before he started this project...woops!

Tomorrow I will write about another big challenge that I am hoping to work towards in 2009. Notice I do not call them New Year's Resolutions...too much pressure if I call them that!

From Our Family...

Christmas Eve Eve Post :)

Hello! It's been such a busy week - shopping, wrapping gifts, visiting with friends, finishing up at work so that I can be off until next Friday (yey!), spending time with Brad's family, and fighting some kind of head cold thing (yuck!)...the days have flown by and suddenly it is Christmas Eve Eve! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and I will be turning 29! I am not (as of yet) having any kind of "age meltdown" even though I am now ridiculously close to the big 3-0. I am actually looking forward to this last year of my twenties...I think it's going to be a good one :)

Lord willing, we are heading to Canada tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with my family. Brad and I were both feeling pretty crummy today but hope to wake up ready to face the icy and snowy roads...

As the song says, "There's no place like home for the holidays..."

So true!

Merry Christmas! I am thanking God more than ever before as I have spent time thinking about Christ's birth and death, and the hope that we can have in life because of Him. How grateful I am that He came - what an amazing gift!

It's a Hard Time of Year to Have Such Short Legs...

Four Month Celebration!

As of today, Brad and I have been on the waiting list to adopt from Korea for four months! In order to celebrate, Brad and I did some very fun shopping last night :)

It's a little hard to pick out clothes, since we don't know if we will have a girl or a boy, and we don't know exactly what age they will be when they come home...so we bought a few things that are very big and could be worn by either a girl or a boy.

Brad picked these out all by himself! Anyone who knows Brad knows how much he loves to wear sweatpants...so of course, Baby Hunt will have to have sweatpants that match his!

The most exciting find came by accident! We have been talking about starting to do the nursery, and had discussed painting the room over Christmas break while Brad is off work. We've been looking around a bit for bedding, because I wanted to get that first so we could pick out a color for paint from it. Look what we found last night:

It is a Noah's Ark theme and I just love it! I love the colors and we are going to paint either a teal color or yellow on the walls. One of my favorite things about it is that my mom had given me a painting she did and it goes so well with the bedding:

I love what it says at the bottom:

Texting on Cell Phones and Lots of Scrapbooking...

*Good job to everyone who guessed "Favorite Things" was the tune for my title! You were right! *

Now, I know I am not the only person who names their posts after song titles...can you guess which song tune my title goes with? I'm not going to tell you - you have to guess!

Today I got a new cell phone! I am usually not too excited about phones...but this one is very cute and has a full keyboard :) Now I can be a texter! And it has a schedule thing so maybe I won't forget everything I'm supposed to do. Maybe.


I have also been doing some scrapbooking lately and thought I'd share a few pages. They're not all embellished or anything, but I think that simple is more me so I'm sticking with that instead of stressing myself out and taking hours on each page. This is much more enjoyable and I have been finishing a page in an hour or under, which is nice. I am still so far behind though!

(Above) These are pictures of Brad's brother's wedding. I love how this one turned out!

(Above) This is about my first 5k race a couple of summers ago. I may have posted this before - I can't remember. Thankfully, now I have a phone that will remind me about everything and I will never forget anything ever again!

I just did this page last night. These are pictures from September when we went to the beach with our friends (one of whom is Rachel from Unexpected Blessings). I am so glad she is my real life friend as well as my bloggy friend :) She's pretty great in real life!

So what do you think - any guesses on the song title?

Favorite Pictures from the Last Few Weeks

My neice, Abbey

Neice Emma

Sweet Daisie

Ferocious Daisie!

Honesty...It Really Is the Best Policy!

Thank you, Wendi, for thinking I am honest on my blog! I try to be :) So now I am supposed to share 10 honest things about myself...this may be more than you ever wanted to know about me!

1. I ate that entire 1 pound chocolate bar by myself in just over a week.

2. For the last three years I have struggled with insomnia. I used to be very afraid of going to bed (I know that sounds crazy but it's true!) because I knew I would just lie there awake for hours. It's starting to get better and usually I can sleep before 1am now.

3. I get sick almost every time I travel. Which is funny because I love to travel! I think I just get all worked up and anxious. Anyway, when she found out we were adopting, my little sister Sarah commented that I had to travel to Korea to pick up our child so that I could throw up in another country! My list to date includes Canada, America, Guatemala, Uganda, England, and almost Mexico but not quite :)

4. My biggest heart-wound ever came from a boy who asked me to marry him and then changed his mind six months later. Ouch! However...the biggest blessing in my life also came from this (also known as Brad!). So I guess I can say...it was worth it :)

5. I am exceedingly hard on myself about anything and everything. I am learning to LET IT GO!

6. I spend way too much time worrying what people think of me.

7. I hate saying no when people ask me to do something for them (because of number 6).

8. I find it hard to trust people (because of number 4) but I am blessed to have found several friends in the last few years who are helping me to get over this fear.

9. Sometimes when I laugh really hard, I snort.

10. Out of my whole life, I am the most content right now with where I am and who I am. Not that I want to stay where I am or who I am...but I'm finally at peace with both :) Most of the time!

I am supposed to pass this award along to 7-10 people, but to be honest, most of the people who's blogs I read have already done this or been tagged! So I'm going to tag my buddy Angela...because I know she'll be honest!

A Completed Project!

Before...

And after!

Empty Containers...

Empty boxes...

I am so glad that is done and I hope I never have to do it again!

It Shouldn't Be This Difficult!

This year I decided to be a grown up and send out some Christmas cards. I have a lot of family in England and Wales as well as friends and family in Canada so I thought I'd write a nice little letter and send a photo card.

Sounds easy enough, right?

That's what I thought too!

My mother-in-law had recently given me a copy of a picture of me and Brad (or is it Brad and I? Please don't judge me because I am bad with grammar!) and it was very nice so I thought that I would use that picture. She emailed it to me, I saved it and went online where I uploaded it to Walmart and ordered 20 copies.

I was pretty disappointed when I picked them up the next day, because they were all blurry! It looked like I had lego blocks for teeth! This would not do. This is probably the only picture of me that some of my relatives have seen in years. I cannot have lego block teeth!

Now I had 20 blurry pictures of me and Brad.

I figured it was because I zoomed in on the picture, so I decided to try again without zooming. This time I ordered from Walgreens (just in case Walmart was the culprit).

An hour later (I was starting to have a time crunch now because these things needed to be in the mail soon to make it to England by Christmas) I rushed to Walgreens to pick them up.

Lego blocks again! What in the world?!?!?!

Now I have 40 blurry pictures of me and Brad.

I decided to try one last time, and this time had my mother-in-law order them from me. I wondered if it had to do with the fact that the picture had been emailed.

This time it turned out fine! My Christmas cards are ready to go and I am sick to death of this picture of me and Brad:



Would anybody like these 40 copies of me with lego block teeth? Maybe I should have a contest and they could be the prize....

Too Long!

I while ago, I was over at a friend’s house for a meal (this friend is also a bloggy friend so she will soon know this story is about her family!). This friend has three darling children who were quite talkative this evening. Our friend came up with a great idea – why don’t we play the quiet game? You know the one – who can go the longest without talking! A favorite of parents everywhere I am sure!

So the game started, and all was quiet. Minutes went by, and suddenly my friend’s eldest daughter burst into tears! We were all kind of surprised, because it was obvious that nothing bad had happened – we’d all been sitting there not talking!

Her dad asked her what happened and why she was crying.

Her response: “It’s been too long!”

I was thinking about this the other day, because it almost perfectly parallels something that happened in my life a week ago. No, I was not making Brad play the quiet game! But I did have my own “It’s been too long!” moment.

For whatever reason, the holiday season has seemed to be particularly difficult for me as I’ve walked this path of infertility. It is a time when more than ever the longing in my heart seems to kick in full strength and my arms just feel especially empty. It is also hard because this time of year is a marker for me – we just reached the three year mark. Overall, these last few months have been so good, my heart has been at peace, I have learned to trust in the Lord and have not struggled too much with the sadness I used to feel.

And then all of a sudden, that was gone. In a moment, the pain was back as fresh as ever, and I found myself crying out to the Lord, “It’s been too long! I can’t wait anymore! When is this going to come to an end?”

How thankful I am that He is the God of all comfort, that I can come to Him with my hurts and find a place of refuge and strength. It has been a difficult week, but it’s good because it has caused me to grasp the hand of my God more tightly. He is good and has given me some very special people in my life who have held me as I’ve cried and who have reminded me of the amazing things God is doing in our lives because of this pain. It is not for nothing – He is using it to change me, and He is leading us down an incredible path to a child who will be our very own!

One last thought – on this difficult day when I was wondering if the Lord knew of the pain in my heart or heard me crying out to Him, a verse stood out to me very clearly as I read:

“The Lord is near.” Phil 4:5

A short verse, but oh so sweet!

It Should Be Called, "Crazy Friday"...

*I just have to post this update because I am SO mad at myself for getting up that early! Brad and I just got back from another trip to Walmart (groceries we needed). It was nice and quiet, no lines...and there, at the back of the store, was a display FULL of the item that I got up early for and stood in line for this morning! UGH! I could have waited till this evening and got the same thing at the same price! How frustrating is that?

I swore I would never do it, but today I did. I got up at 4:30am, headed to Walmart, stood in line for an hour, and got a good deal (I can't say what I bought though because it is a secret present for Brad!).

I think I should have stayed in bed and just paid the extra $50!!!

For those non-Americans out there, let me tell you what you are missing. Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and it is known here as "Black Friday" (I think because it is a day when stores have massive sales which puts them "in the black" instead of "in the red"). Some stores open at 4am and you can usually find great deals. If you are willing to brave the crowds...

People are SO crazy! I cannot believe the amount of people that were in Walmart this morning at 5am. It is the first time in my life I have been in a traffic jam in a PARKING LOT! I told Brad (who was a sweetheart and came with me) that people should only be allowed in the store if they were in a good mood. That would probably have weeded out about 2/3 of the people!

We finished up at Walmart, came home and slept for a couple more hours, and then headed out to a few more stores. I'm not sure why but we just had so much fun. We laughed and got some more good deals, had lunch together...it was a very fun shopping date :)

But I will never, ever, EVER get up before 9am on Black Friday again. Ever!

The Christmas Cow

A couple of weeks ago, we entered our local Meijer store to do some grocery shopping. As I turned to get a cart, Brad immediately rushed over to the Christmas display. I turned around to see him with his arm around a lighted Christmas cow (kind of strange - they had a pig, too). Then Brad proceeded to moo at me. Loudly.

A couple of nights ago we were at Meijer again. Conversation as follows:

Brad: Let's go see my Christmas cow!!!

Me: Well, honey, it's not really your Christmas cow...

Brad (with a smile): No, but it could be.... :)

I am hoping so much that I will not come home and find it on my lawn!

Spending Some Time Indoors...

After waking up to this...

I knew I would not be able to talk myself into running outside today!

So I decided instead to use this...

A friend recently gave me a free week at her gym so that I can try it out. I went today and loved it! It was so good not to be cold! And the people working at the gym were the most friendly and helpful people. I'm going again tomorrow!

Can You Hear the Laughter from Canada?

I am so happy to be home! It's been a while and I am ready for some sister time with my little sis, Sarah. She gets me laughing so hard and I love that I can just be my goofy self. I mean, I'm always my goofy self, but sometimes that means I get strange looks from people! Here...I just fit right in!

So Sarah and I just spent half an hour trying to get a decent picture. We agreed it must be the lighting that kept making our pictures turn out so bad. After 22 shots...we agreed this was the best it was going to get!


I am happy and carefree today because not only do I get to spend some time with my family, but I actually got a full night's sleep last night! We have been transitioning Daisie from sleeping in the bed to sleeping on the floor on a dog pillow...and there have been a few rough nights at the Hunt house this week. For some reason, Daisie seems to think that after a four hour power nap, she should get up around 2am and be ready to PLAY. We have discussed this at length with her and last night she finally complied with our rules and stayed on her pillow! This morning I found her all tucked up in her blanket looking all cute and cuddly. I liked her much more after she let me have a full night's sleep.

I know that it won't be too long until I am being woken up by the cries of our little one, and at this point I naively look forward to that :) But that time is not yet here and I am not willing to be woken up by a dog. Baby, yes...doggie, no! I do not want practice, I want to sleep! :)

A Whole Lot of Nothing

It has been a busy busy week, hence the lack of blogging! (sorry Ang!) I think I will copy Rachel's bullet idea for a quick catch up of what has been going on.

• Still working on the basement...will it ever end? Hopefully this project will be done by the end of Thanksgiving break


• Yesterday was the 3 month mark of our being on the waiting list! The time seems to be going by pretty quickly and (most days) I am able to keep myself from going too crazy thinking about the future.


• Poor Brad has to have a root canal today :( It will be the first time he's had a needle in his mouth and he is pretty nervous about it.


• I have the best boss ever! Look what he brought me back from a recent trip to England :) Yep, it's an enormous chocolate bar. I ate so much of it this morning that I started to feel sick...but I didn't even care! I love British chocolate! Unfortunately, this candy bar combined with no running this week (knee pain again) equals a very unhealthy week! As you can tell from the picture, I am very concerned.

• I get to go home to Canada this weekend! I am so excited and it feels like it's been so long since I've been back. I can't wait to see family and friends and to have fun NOT cleaning the basement!

• I am back to scrapbooking and feeling the passion again! Tonight is scrapbook night, my stuff is all organized, and I know exactly what I am going to work on!

This Week's Big Basement Find...

Jackpot! $15 Canadian to spend when I go home next weekend!

The funniest part is that this money was in a card someone must have given me several years ago. Oops! Oh well, now it will buy me some much needed Canadian chocolate bars (also known to my American friends as "candy bars").

I am hoping to come across hundreds of dollars as I continue to clean...but I fear I am to be sorely disappointed.

Say it with me now, "I will not procrastinate, I will not procrastinate..."

This may seem like a strange picture, but to me it is a great accomplishment! Christmas presents purchased BEFORE Christmas Eve! What an amazing concept! Of course, I can't show the presents because some of the people who will be receiving them read this blog :)

For the last few years I have spent Christmas Eve (which also happens to be my birthday) having to go to the store for at least one last minute present. I leave shopping till the end and then it turns out that it is no fun whatsoever because I am grouchy and the stores are busy and I don't know what to buy...so this year, I have put my foot down! I am no longer going to be a procrastinator!

I started purchasing presents in the summer (Kristy, are you so proud?) when I saw stuff I knew was perfect for a family member or friend. I am now getting to the end of my list and it has definitely been a better way to do things. This year I have enjoyed shopping, have had time to really think about each person I am shopping for and find things they would like, and have found some great deals too :)

I will never go back to being a last minute Christmas shopper!

Made to Worship

I never dreamed when I picked up a guitar ten years ago that it would one day feel like a part of me! I have so happy to be playing a lot again lately. Playing on the praise team at church and helping to lead the youth praise team has been such a blessing to me these last few months. I love to play, but more than that, I love to worship the Lord. I have been learning a lot lately about worship as I have been thinking through why and how we worship. The Lord has changed me in so many ways over the last few years, and one of the things He has shown me is that worship is not about me. I used to get nervous, I used to think that people were looking at me or that I would mess it all up. I used to worry if it was not perfect and stress if things did not go how we practiced. I was quick to be critical of other people's efforts - thinking we were playing it too fast or too slow or too loud or too soft or just not the way I wanted! But through His Word I have been gently (and not so gently) reminded that worship is about HIM alone. It is about singing to Him and singing about Him. I am learning to let go of my perfectionistic (and self-focused) ways and to worship with my heart. He is so worthy of my praise!

"I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever." Psalm 86:12

You Can't Miss Me!

Long gone are the days of cute summer running outfits :( It is now a matter of survival. Appearance is unimportant - warmth is everything!

A few years back I was on a volleyball team. When we ordered our team shirts, we expected yellow...but we didn't expect to glow in the dark! This shirt has been stuffed in the back of my dresser for years...but at long last it has a purpose! I feel very safe and visible now when I am running with my "bright as the sun" shirt on!

Today it snowed and was cold, and all I wanted to do was curl up and take a nap...but instead I met my running buddies and did another 5 miles. It was hard and cold but the company was good and we managed it! And now, I am back home, warm and cozy, and ready to sink into the couch for a good long while :)

I'm a Nerd and I'm Proud of It!

Last night Brad and I attended a fundraiser auction at our local Christian school. It turns out I am actually quite competitive when the bidding starts :) It was a silent auction, so we had to write down our bids, and then they told us when the bidding was going to close for that area, and you had to push your way in to write down your bid right before it closed. I am super excited about what I ended up with:

Yes, I love Little House and the Waltons! I don't care if they are old fashioned or not "cool" these days...I just love them! I love seeing when life was simpler. Sometimes I wish I was born in that time period, but then I remember about the outhouses and I think maybe not! This afternoon I am going to put some episodes in and watch them in the basement while I do some more sorting - hopefully it will make it go by more quickly!

That's My Dog

She goes up...

But can't get down...

She hates it when she's left alone...

(She was asleep when I went down to the basement, and this is what I found when I came upstairs five minutes later)

She always looks tired but has energy like you wouldn't believe!

That's my dog!

Today's News...

Completed I-600A form and having fingerprints taken for US immigration (needed in order to be approved to adopt from another country): $830.00

Knowing we are one step closer to holding our little one in our arms: PRICELESS!!!!

I'm So Excited...And I Just Can't Hide it!

Today was the perfect running day. It was cool, but not too cool. A light breeze, the sun shining - perfect. The park was gorgeous, surrounded by beautiful gold and red trees, a blue sky...just an overall perfect day to go running.

So after work, I went running.

I was hoping to be able to do about 3 miles, but wasn't sure if I could since I have been running only 2 or 2 1/2 miles each time recently. It has been a couple of weeks since I've done 3. Once I got going, I realized that I felt pretty good and thought I could for sure do the 3.6 I had planned. Once I finished that...I decided to keep going!

And I ran 5 miles! I REPEAT - FIVE MILES!!! I cannot believe I did that without dropping over dead. The signs at the park said I ran 5.4 miles, but based on my usual running paces and how long it took me today, I'd say it was closer to 5.

Either way, that is the farthest (furthest?) I have ever run. I am a happy camper :)

A Beautiful Gift

At church on Sunday, a dear lady approached me and gave me a beautiful gift. It is a bracelet that says "Heart to Home" and it was given to this lady by her mother-in-law when she was waiting to bring home her little girl from Guatemala. Well, her little girl has been home for a couple of months now, and so this lady passed this bracelet along to me to wear (or keep - my wrists are so small that I'm scared it will fall off and I'll lose it!) while we are waiting. She told me that when my wait is over, I can pass it along to someone else who is waiting to bring home a child.

What a beautiful reminder that I will not always be "in the waiting"! One day, the wait will be over and I will have my child in my arms. Every day I grow more and more certain that in the not too distant future I will look back on this period of my life and say, "It was SO worth it!"

Random Things, Part Two

The fun part about cleaning out the basement is that I know that if something does not belong to me, it belongs to Brad. I am learning all kinds of interesting things about my husband!

Apparently, he really likes hats or funny things to put on his head (I wasn't sure if that beanie counted as a hat...). Or rather, he likes to purchase them, and then keep them in the basement.

Please allow me to show you a couple of my favorites :)

Good news - we finally found the matching hat to Brad's fabulous Nascar jacket! Actually, he had two very colorful Rusty hats (I wonder which one he should wear at the airport...)

One of Brad's first statements when we started the big clean was "I'm not getting rid of my Rusty jacket". It's like he could read my mind!

Also previously unknown to me, my husband owns a cowboy hat. Which lives in our basement.

Daisie feels that this one needs to go as it has not been worn in the last four + years.

As I have been picking on Brad a bit for his "basement treasures", allow me to share one of my own that was discovered just today.

These are very special crackers...because they come from my teaching days! I used to have a box of snacks that I'd keep by my desk for when I got hungry. That means that these crackers are...maybe 3 1/2 years old.

I must admit, I was tempted to try them to see if they are still good!